BABY T'S MOM PASSES DRUG TEST

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

After initial test reports indicated that Tina Olison, the mother involved in a child custody dispute with a prominent Cook County political couple, had tested positive for opiates, more extensive drug testing was negative.

"This is just what we expected," said Anita Rivkin-Carothers, Olison's attorney, after receiving the results of more sophisticated tests from a Pennsylvania lab that found no narcotics.

After the initial "quick strip" test results were said to be positive, Olison and her attorneys contended that the test, conducted at the Family Guidance Center in Chicago, was faulty. Her unsupervised visits with her son, the 3-year-old boy known as Baby T, were allowed to continue.

Olison, a drug user for nearly two decades, had been substance-free since 1996, officials on both sides agree.

In March, a Kane County judge ordered the child known as Baby T, 3, returned to Olison within 12 months. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services argued he should stay with foster parents Ald. Edward Burke (14th) and Appellate Judge Anne Burke.